Cryogenics, a small collection of random -CL9 slaughter(ish) maps [now on idgames]

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Seasons greetings, doomworld! So ive been sitting on some maps i have made over the last year or so, with no project to put them towards and no real motivation to make any more for the moment, instead of having them sat frozen on my HDD for the rest of time i figured i should just post them up here and await the (inevitably bad) feedback! :)

4 slaughter maps of varying difficulty and length, runs with doom2... all designed for pistol starts, tested exclusively in pr/glboom+. Some may be a little rough, in all honesty i havent even looked at them properly in a while so there may be a couple of fights which require tweaking/tuning, hopefully no egregious map-breaking bugs though. GL rendering is recommended, as software rendering doesnt like some of the maps too much.

Midi for 01 is made by benjogami, 02 is from duke3d iirc, 03 is from e1m5, and 04 i have no idea :P

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Great opening level, the architecture is stellar to say the least, never seen that cubic stairway pattern executed with such a refined look.

I found the challenge just right for the most part, with no unfair fights where your forced to take unwarranted damage or get pummeled by poor enemy placement. The hardest battle is definitely the stairway full of Revenants, HK's, Cacos swarming in with Pinkies and Imps in the rear. I beat it but I couldn't find a full proof strategy which always works, I tried killing as many Revenants as possible, then shooting rockets at the Pinkies and Imps before being forced to switch to Plasma and situate myself in the corner by the Soulsphere while moving through the thicket. Then getting lucky being able to free myself from the swarm and dive for the opening now present at the top of the stairs, from there it was much easier to clear the remaining group without being trapped from all sides. I can't really comment if this needs altering without opinions from others, maybe their are too many enemies? I assume the difficulty was designed with demo recording in mind? I can see that fight being a real bitch unless you know exactly what your doing :D

The final battle was ironically the easiest, only because your given space to move without being trapped and it's quite generous throwing in Medkits along side the much needed Megasphere. If you time your movement just right going between the groups of Pinkies, it's possible to do this taking little to no damage. I don't have a criticism with final battles not necessarily being the hardest section of the whole map, just thought it was humourous and unexpected after the ordeal of the stairway fight :)

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@Bloodite Krypto, the strat i used was to spam rockets at the enemies at the top til the first pinkies reach you, then go down and hide amongst them at the bottom spamming plasma (taking care to sit in the pinkies and avoid the imp scratches).. Then once your plasma is almost gone, returning back up the stairs to grab more cells and a soulsphere if needed.. hit the switch at the top, then escape from the bottom. A lot seems to depend on when the cyb arrives.. If it TPs in early then life is generally made a lot easier as it distracts the revs/mancs a lot more effectively allowing you to slip thru the gaps :)

With that said, RC2 is in updated OP, had to tweak a few little niggles, added a block line and removed some pointless PEs from map02, added a vile to 03, and a green armour to 04. Thanks again for anyone who has taken time to download and try these maps out, much appreciated!

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@Bloodite Krypto, the strat i used was to spam rockets at the enemies at the top til the first pinkies reach you, then go down and hide amongst them at the bottom spamming plasma (taking care to sit in the pinkies and avoid the imp scratches).. Then once your plasma is almost gone, returning back up the stairs to grab more cells and a soulsphere if needed.. hit the switch at the top, then escape from the bottom. A lot seems to depend on when the cyb arrives.. If it TPs in early then life is generally made a lot easier as it distracts the revs/mancs a lot more effectively allowing you to slip thru the gaps :)

Yeah that was pretty much my strategy, but I had trouble getting more cells and a soulsphere as I'd get blocked by Cacos and HK's, in hindsight I think I had bad luck with the Cyber teleporting in late.

No issues with 02, The layout is very simple, just a straight forward gauntlet which ascends in intensity. I really liked the opening battle due to the minimum amount of space you have to work with, you have to be precise with your aim in killing the Revenants as if you let one straggler get ahead it's easy to get trapped by the wall. I don't see many revenant horde fights in an enclosed area where you'll get trapped unless you kill them quick enough, which is a nice touch! I thought this was the hardest fight ironically :D

The drop down to the Mega with the Cyb, goats and AV's along the walls is pretty ballsy, you need very quick reflexes to duke and dive between the goats while avoiding the cyber on the platform and take out the AV's. I'm glad there were additional medkits as it's impossible to avoid taking damage, which is clearly the intention from the setup of the fight, but is manageable given the included Megasphere.

I yoloed the last fight on my first try, just had the right timing with some tactical footwork going back and forth between the Barons and the corner with the Archviles to avoid getting fried, and had some nice infighting with the Cyber and BFG usage to avoid being trapped. I liked the Pain Elemental armada at the exit which are deadly if your low on health by that point, they prevent the tension from grinding to a complete halt :)

03 had great gameplay which flowed well from beginning to end, I never felt any fight was tedious or included just for filler, but had intelligent monster placement combined with cramped layouts that forced you to act fast with your weapon usage and footwork. I especially liked the cyber setups as they were crucial for infighting in featured fights to avoid getting trapped and added a great strategic aspect. The finale was a great deal of fun, but not frustrating as your flooded with all the cells you could desire and a good surplus of Megas to keep you patched up, some nice duking and diving between rampant Archviles and cyber rockets :)

Great set of maps once again, I enjoyed the gameplay from the beginning of each map to the end and never felt it was a chore to playthrough or unfair in design, have yet to play 04..

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The key word to summarize is well choreographed, acute attention to color and lighting with evocative architecture that is captivating and memorable, it reminded me of Sunder, particular in the outdoor section with those uniquely crafted buildings on the outskirts, placed for immersion and a sense of scale rather then being part of the playing area. The gameplay was balanced and carefully refined, it's the right level of challenge without being flawed with poor monster setups which make it impossible to avoid taking damage regardless of one's playing ability. That being said the only two fights I was reluctant to consider fair was getting stuffed in that square box in the outdoor area with two cybers, their fine to deal with if their not aggressive, but I question how detrimental that setup will have on UV-Maxing the map, to get so far and get slapped in the face with bad luck as it's a very tense encounter, on the other hand you could just stand on their spawn point till the archway opens. Also with regards to the secret fight by the exit, when that flood of Archviles teleport in you've got no cover and can be low on cell ammo by that point, the only method I can see of dispatching them is to have foreknowledge of when they are about to teleport in and pre-fire BFG blasts, unless this has been changed for the /idgames release then consider the point invalid, but that's the only encounter I considered genuinely unfair.

Overall these are some of the best slaughter maps I've played all year, great architectue and addicting gameplay with the right scale of difficulty that challenges the player but doesn't push them over the edge, this is thanks to a balanced distribution of resources, you've got just the right amount of health and ammo to support you, never an absence which makes you struggle in dispatching lethal encounters quickly and never too abundant to make you play cocky and recklessly. The player has just enough breathing room to manipulate and negotiate horde movement so as not to get trapped, which makes for tactiful fights, but their are never big, open areas which leads to the lethargy of running around in circles holding down the fire key, your always under pressure to kill monsters quickly to avoid getting trapped and are encouraged to prioritize targets when Archviles and Pain Elementals are thrown into the mix.

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Been away from DW for a short while so missed these posts... The cyber love shack in 04 was indeed changed prior to release, its now only the one cyber and shouldnt pose too much of a threat. Having the 2 point blank in the players face simultaneously felt a touch rude when it was that far into a fairly long map, even if the whole thing could be nullified with standing on the TP spot ;)

Also removed a couple of cybs from the gauntlet at the western end of that outdoor area, the ones low down on the steps felt like a bit of overkill, and that bit plays much the same with 3 removed from the lower steps.

The secret fight vile rush wasnt changed.. im aware that kinda makes it a foreknowledge required fight to save cells before they arrive.. but as its a secret fight i didnt actually get much feedback on it because everyone who gave feedback before release completely missed it, so it went off to idgames as it stood :)

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oh :P umm... i dont think im gonna be trying to sort discrepancies with zdoom midi issues tbh, it wasnt tested in zdoom at all because i assumed zdoom wouldnt play the maps at a tolerable framerate so i just kinda accepted any zdoom issues wouldnt be a major cause for concern and id leave them as they stood :)

The window, i specifically left it empty because i didnt want people going "eurgh copy paste detailing, what a noob!" so i drew out the 2nd one different intentionally.. You just cant win these days :D Many thanks for the feedback though :)

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Apologies for double post, but after faceplanting the secret fight in 04 for far too long i felt it had to have some sort of edit.. so i threw down some more health and ammo and some popup cover which all becomes available when the wave of viles arrives. Sent off the update to idgames so the link in OP is the updated version. Many thanks for all who played and gave feedback, especially @Bloodite Krypto for pointing out that fight was complete BS :D